The first debate of San Francisco’s testy, crowded mayoral race unfolded last night, and it was simultaneously two things: a predictable bore that mostly coasted along on performative platitudes, as well as a goofy, strangely informal-feeling evening that led to some funny (and head-scratching) moments.
Showing up for the battle were the five most prominent candidates for the mayorship: District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, former interim mayor and supervisor Mark Farrell, Levi’s heir and philanthropist Daniel Lurie, Mayor London Breed, and District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who is also president of the Board of Supervisors.
The June 12 event was moderated by Manny Yekutiel, owner of the café and event space Manny’s in the Mission, and Heather Knight, the head of the New York Times’ San Francisco bureau.
While I wasn’t able to snag an in-person ticket for the sold-out show, hosted by the nonprofit City Arts & Lectures, I followed every minute of the livestream. Very little of the debate illuminated significant differences between the candidates. Mostly, they differed by subtle degrees on statements around addressing homelessness, public security, housing, and bureaucracy. Surprise: They all hate drug dealers and the lack of affordable homes. They also all want jobs and residents to move to downtown San Francisco.
Instead, let’s focus on everything else: The laughs, the lowlights, and the disruptions.
1. Everyone hated having to pay for the debate
The chat room on YouTube, where the livestream was hosted, overflowed with negative comments about the cost of viewing the debate at home. Dozens of viewers complained about the $10 fee, suggesting that forcing the public to pay for a mayoral debate was quite literally undemocratic. It turns out, however, that City Arts & Lectures did give free tickets to some people who emailed them and said the cost was prohibitive.
2. How far in advance were candidates given questions?
Other than the lighthearted “lightning round” to end the debate, it felt like every candidate knew exactly what they wanted to say for each question. Breed seemed to be, somewhat nervously, trying to recite statements that she had memorized. Peskin didn’t even bother pretending, reading off his notes for much of the debate. Perhaps everyone really was just well-prepared, but there wasn’t much organic energy in the way people staked their claim on the issues, and almost no meaningful sparring between them.
3. Daniel Lurie got bullied, but had the last laugh
The Levi’s heir hustled hard to promote himself as both a political outsider but also someone who, as the founder of the nonprofit Tipping Point Community, had real-world experience in building housing and revitalizing urban areas.
Yet there were some definite missteps. I gawked with confusion as he answered a question about reviving downtown by telling an anecdote of being in downtown New York City during 9/11. “In the years that followed that, people told me they’ll never go downtown. Now, you go back to NYC, it’s booming,” he concluded.
Which … what? I think people avoided downtown NYC after 9/11 because of the trauma of watching thousands die in the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, not because they saw a few sketchy smash-and-grab robberies and the loss of corporate retailers during a pandemic.
Farrell and Safaí saw fit to pick on Lurie later in the debate.
“Daniel, this is where your inexperience shows,” Farrell said in response to a criticism from Lurie on past city police budgets.
Safaí went for the same tack later: “See, that’s where the inexperience of someone that hasn’t worked in government like Daniel Lurie shines through,” he crowed on a prompt about building housing.
(“Thanks for saying that,” Lurie muttered into the mic in response.)
Later, Lurie got his revenge.
“They’re going to talk about experience all night. They have more than 70 years combined experience on this stage. Look at where it’s gotten us,” he said. “Are we happy?”
It won some hollering and applause from the crowd, despite rules against both during the debate.
4. Protesters came for Breed
About a half-hour into the debate, some activists/protesters showed up at the Sydney Goldstein Theater to hassle Breed about budget cuts. Although it was hard to hear on the stream, some phrases came through clearly: “Mayor Breed! Don’t balance the budget on the back of working families!” one person seemed to yell.
The group continued for a minute or two, angering the crowd into boos and jeers. “No cuts to education!” they seemed to chant. (“Shut the fuck up!” an attendee replied.)
I couldn’t figure out who they represented, but found some potential clues in recent reporting about Breed’s cuts to the upcoming budget amid a massive deficit in city coffers. Perhaps it has to do with how nonprofit organizations that support students and families are going to lose funding. Nonetheless, Breed seemed almost smug about the confrontation: “Are you guys sure you want to do this?” she said, addressing the protest at the back of the auditorium.
5. The crowd laughed at Farrell’s daydream of Market Street
About an hour into the debate, Knight asked Farrell about his desire to bring cars back onto Market Street in downtown. He gave an answer that was so lofty it sounded unbelievable.
“I believe Market Street should be one of the grand boulevards of the world. Think about the Champs-Élysées in Paris,” he said, inciting murmurs and laughs from the auditorium. “Think about Las Ramblas in Barcelona. But you know what? Market Street today is scary,” he declared.
He continued by noting that bringing cars back to Market would make it more “vibrant” and improve foot traffic, thereby reducing the presence of drug sales and homelessness along the corridor. An incremental first idea, Farrell said, would be to open Market Street to rideshare cars.
Ironically, however, the city of Paris is currently radically revising how its world-famous boulevard will operate. Apparently, having so many cars was the problem, leading to all-time-high levels of pollution and local Parisians basically never going there because it’s a worn-down street with a bunch of corporate shops and tourists. The city is now pursuing a plan to significantly limit car traffic, improve pedestrian space, and plant greenery.
6. Wait, Breed wants to rewrite the entire city charter using ChatGPT?
At first, Breed’s response to a question about red tape and bloated oversight seemed generic: “Sometimes, it’s not about introducing new laws, it’s about getting rid of old ones. We have a bureaucracy, decades of built-up law that needs to be deconstructed,” she said.
Then it went off the rails: “We have to completely deconstruct government,” Breed said later. “I mean if I had my way, I’d take the whole charter and everything else, put it in ChatGPT, type up a few things, and spit it out and almost start all over so we can deconstruct and get to ‘yes’ in this city.”
What does this mean? Does Breed know how ChatGPT works? Is she using it to write mayoral memos? What would a city charter edited by AI even look like? Is Breed an anti-government operative covertly working on behalf of OpenAI?
7. Who would they vote for besides themselves? (It got awkward)
I’m not sure what the moderators were thinking by asking the candidates who else they would vote for in a race that’s decided by ranked-choice voting. The answers were guarded, to say the least, with two candidates outright dodging the question and others visibly displeased by the inconsistent process.
Safaí was reluctant to reply to Knight and Yekutiel, who kept pressing for an answer. Safaí eventually went with Farrell and Peskin. Farrell returned the compliment by stating he would vote for Safaí because they share values.
Lurie swerved, claiming he hasn’t made a decision yet, which inspired an interjection from Safaí: “I thought we had to answer the question…”
Feeling pressure, Lurie juked again: “But Manny, when you were thinking about running, you were definitely going to be my number two,” he said, inciting groans from the crowd, fellow candidates, and even Yekutiel himself.
Breed was the other candidate to dodge the question: “Some of these guys up here have not been very nice to me, so I probably would look at other candidates in the book.”
“So nobody on this stage?” Yekutiel responded.
“It depends. They still have time to make it up to me,” Breed said with a smile, earning a wave of laughs from the crowd.
Peskin was perhaps most genuine, noting that politics come down to compromise and collaboration. “I’ve done a lot of that with Supervisor Safaí and some of that with Mayor Breed,” he replied.
(Of note was an exchange heard later, on a hot mic near the end of the debate, after Peskin said that, if he had a magic wand to fix anything in the city, he would reform the civil service hiring process to rapidly fill empty positions for nurses, 911 operators, and others — “Which only the mayor can do,” he said.
In response, Breed leaned over and said, “You know I need the board to do that…” Fitting, given Peskin is president of the board!)
8. Lightning Round shenanigans
- What’s Farrell’s favorite SF tradition? Visiting Alcatraz, apparently, which got an incredulous reaction from Yakutiel (“That’s your favorite?”) and a joke from Knight (“You are law and order!”). Peskin, maybe being witty on the fly, later remarked that his favorite tradition is swimming from Alcatraz.
- Did Safaí and Farrell draw blanks when asked about their favorite local drag queen? Safaí admitted “it’s a tough one” before defaulting to activist, City Hall veteran, and RuPaul’s Drag Race star Honey Mahogany. Farrell seemed relieved, blurting out “I’m gonna give the same answer” while flashing a cheeky smile.
- A question about the candidates’ “favorite watering hole” went to Peskin first, generating some slightly awkward chuckles from people familiar with his history of alcoholism (he entered treatment in 2021). But he had a good answer: “Wellll, they have great N.A. beer at the mother of all bars, Gino & Carlo’s in North Beach.”
- At the end of the watering-hole question, Yekutiel cracked a Pride-appropriate joke, noting that none of the candidates had mentioned the Powerhouse, the Folsom leather bar with a reputation as a gay cruising destination.
“I can take you all there afterwards, if you’d like,” he said. “See who survives.”
“You didn’t say club, you said watering hole!” Safaí responded in jest.
“Oh, no. It’s a watering hole,” Yekutiel said in return, inspiring another wave of laughs from the crowd as he realized the innuendo and buried his face in his hands in embarrassment.
“Yeah, right,” Safaí concluded, grinning at the other laughing candidates.
